Nature/Nurture

by Elody Gyekis

As a child, I spent hours exploring the woods barefoot. I sculpted tiny dwellings with twigs and clay, climbed into trees to read books, and turned my sketches of flowers into fairies. As an adult, these impulses have never left me. My art is still about stories, nature, and magic.

What has changed is my framework for understanding the world, and my preoccupation with the concept of gender. Our culture still values women for their beauty, youth, and submissiveness and men for their dominance, strength, and resources. Women have fought hard for the right to some “masculine” traits, but “feminine” traits are often systematically shamed, especially when exhibited by boys and men. I went from a girlhood of pink frilly dresses to a tomboy adolescence, and had to shake off my own judgements of femininity in order to finally embrace both sides of myself. Now, I honor the feminine. My work centers color, beauty, and decoration—aesthetics that were long considered feminine, queer, and foreign and thus unworthy in Western art. My portraits celebrate women for their emotional intelligence, nurturing generosity, and creativity, as well as for their strength, courage, and leadership.

 It seems no coincidence that many ancient cultures revered a divine feminine creator, and equated her with nature. I make paintings that revel in the marvels of nature, and weave nature into my figurative works. The theme of this show, “Nature/Nurture” captures the thread that ties my loving studies of nature with my larger figurative pieces that celebrate women. I make work about the wondrous natural world that feeds my soul and nurtures my being. I make work about gender identity, and the incredible people in my life who embrace their femininity, make the world beautiful, and nurture all that is precious within it.